The State Health Services are hurting more people than they are helping!

The CPS in Spokane first takes children out of their homes, then burdens parents in recovery, rather than utilize methods that would help parents' recovery, in many of their cases. I have seen this process when I served as a Guardian ad Litem in Spokane.

It would be far less costly to support parents while they are in the recovery process. This would entail supervision, rather than taking children out of homes, which immediately sets up a costly process of courts, professional services to meet the state's intervention policies, and related trauma to the entire family and community. Instead, the State would be far more effective in supporting the parent's recovery process and adding a new policy of providing employment. The parent's current basic-needs living expenses should be paid during the recovery process and they should be provided with meaningful employment at the end of the state's intervention process. If these type of solutions were applied in Spokane, the troubled parents in our metropolis would not be too scared to seek help from their community when they have become trapped in addictions or other problems resulting from that "low percentage of unemployed workers" that our economic reporters do such a good job reporting on! CPS must, and in most cases, does contact family members to pick up the children rather than remove them into unfamiliar surroundings. If the parents are not being arrested (or when they are released from jail);their children could be put under supervision from another family member or designated professional, at their home, or another designated place--with a new policy ofunlimited visiting rights of the parents.The children could be taken care of, as with daycare, while the parents are in out-patienttreatment programs. Some parents and children can pursue in-patient treatment programs. The State's intervention must also include follow-up support and supervision of whether the family has been able to improve their life. So many times, CPS and the State, allow disastrous situations to continue for years, because they do not have policies for the end result other than to terminate parental rights if their treatment programs or intervention skills do not succeed. And all those taxes help only a small percentage of parents in need in our community! And so it continues, while a new generation of young adults join our metropolis every 20 years!How about we use methods that work long-term instead?

I have used the Spokane Mental Health services off and on for 40 years, and their primary goal is to help individuals "cope" with their symptoms. They "educate" but do not emphasize treating the mental health condition! They have helped, but only because I am in charge of my progress and know what I am doing. For those who have mental or emotional illness and do not have the same control as myself, there is not much hope until the Mental Health System personnel are actually honest with the people they treat and provide safety to those who need it for as long as they need it! 40 years to recover from emotional illness? That's the mental health system of today! With proper care, the symptoms of emotional or mental illness can become minimized so they are not life-threatening, within 1 or 2 years! In our system, a person is helped temporarily and their illness continues on, at times reaching emergency levels of symptoms! So who in the hell knows how to treat mental illness? I do! But do the professionals? That's my question! They have highly paid psychologists and possibly psychotherapists! Do we know how their patients are doing? Do we know when they refer a person to their highly paid psychologists? You should find out how many go through their 18 month outpatient program and actually stay mentally and emotionally healthy for more than a year! Although, their 18 month program is better, it is still limited in the amount of clients who can be helped yearly.

The people of the Spokane Metropolis have the right to know more details about these type of programs that are structured to assist vast numbers of people within our population! What is the progress of the people who have had some form of State or Public Intervention? How many more people would we need to assist if we could? The state of our city is up to those of us who can provide paths of safety and spiritual empowerment within our communities. People who are already at the front lines of peaceful community living know that only enough actions from groups of goodwill can bring peace to a troubled metropolitan region. Using our existing programs, we need to know the state of affairs in our communities and join together in promoting new practices where needed. There are so many examples of programs bringing new life to people who had no hope left throughout America and the World. We can truly chart our course of city living in the present by knowing and sharing our human process of enlightenment.

A LOOK AT THE PHILOSOPHY BEHIND Spokane Flash News!

NEIGHBORHOODS

Spiritual development is an important expression of people's values. At this critical time in history, every religion and philosophy that promotes respect for people deserves to be in the news!

When we unite to create a socially responsible media, we begin to assist more individuals, families and groups to pursue experiences that simultaneously benefit themselves and our community, and we expand safety in our city.

A Brief Social Essay on Our Metropolitan Communities

People in our Cities

by Sunny Mika

The impoverished lives of children and adults in our communities -especially those who had emotional turmoil throughout their first 18 years of life- learn everything about this world! They look "everywhere" and see "everything" in their "24-hour" environment, in the city, maybe just in apartments. But they cannot lead healthy lives - there are no healthy environments in the city for them - only those precious families who lead healthy lives, and their social environments, have a high degree of safety within our cities. There are millions of both types of people! How do we help those people, ages 1 to "100," who are so desperate in some way in our city? What human guidance, including employment opportunities, or putting their creative talents to use in ways that are natural to them, can we make accessible to these people, starting from where they are at? So they can learn to achieve their desired results! For each family or individual, this could be a one year process. And guess what? We would have millions more healthy people!

If people in trouble or have high levels of ongoing stress cannot reach out for help, let those of us who can listen well, look for people who need the kind of support that will change their lives for the better. There are so many community programs that are good for families, they might just need out help in finding the support from the people who can provide what they need, in our local community centers & programs that already exist.

All healthy environments were built by people in their own communities. We can find new community activities to reach out to those who want to believe that this is a good life in Spokane, yet falling into suffering every day without our help. Even domestic violence can be approached long before stress levels reach unbearable proportions for those involved! Look for all the trends and information online and you will have a wide perspective of what people are already doing to give dignity and equality back to everyone, In the Spokane Community and many other places in America & our world!